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IDEC Jakarta, 2017

news Change and opportunity in the Indonesian health care sector 5 Beautiful Indonesia. Together with Mexico, Nigeria and Turkey, the South-East Asian country has been identified as one of the emerging economic giants of the future, termed “MINT” countries by British economist Dr Jim O’Neill. n Blessed with a diverse landscape and a rich cultural history, Indonesia is one of the most fascinating coun- tries in Asia. And yet, although its natural treasures do not fall short of the attractions of nearby countries, the number of foreigners visiting Indonesia has remained considerably lower than Singapore or Malaysia.1 Of course, the reasons for this are multi- faceted. Nonetheless, Indonesia’s weaker performance in the tourism industry is just one example of the country’s immense potential that is evident in many areas, not least in its medical and dental care industries. Up until a few years ago, the health care sector, especially dental care, was a severely underserved market. Looking back only one dec- ade, Indonesia had one of the lowest population–dentist ratios in the world.2 Generally, health care has long been viewed as a low priority in the country, with little preventative care and a lack of comprehensive medical insurance. However, while the country definitely has some catching up to do, it has already be- gun to do so. In an attempt to improve the in- sufficient health care sector, the country has initiated reforms that are set to transform the country and cre- ate promising opportunities for the dental industry in the years to come. One of the most significant measures is the universal health insurance cov- erage, Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN), which was introduced in 2014 and is intended to cover all Indone- sian citizens by 2019. JKN will change the health care sector dramatically. Currently, less than two-thirds of the population has health insurance. Once fully implemented, it will be mandatory for all Indonesians to join JKN, pay- ing a share of their monthly salary as an insurance premium. For those who have no regular income, this will be publicly funded. With JKN, potentially over 86 million ad- ditional people (about the popula- tion size of Germany and eight times that of Sweden) will have im- proved access—and, in some cases, first-ever access—to the health care system and most certainly make use of it. “Indonesia is huge and up until now was never fully able to exploit the associated market potential.” 5 Market analysts have predicted that the changing health care sector will create lucrative opportunities in various segments of the dental industry, for example for equipment manufacturers. This example perfectly illustrates Indonesia’s one characteristic that has shaped its past and will most likely transform its future: it is huge and up until now was never fully able to exploit the associated market po- tential. The fourth most populous coun- try in the world (and a member of the G20), Indonesia is as wide as the US from San Francisco to New York and home to over 260 million inhabitants who live scattered across ten thou- sands of large and small tropical is- lands. Its size and atypical topogra- phy pose a variety of infrastructural challenges and have thus affected the development of the health care sector in the past, but these are also likely to help Indonesia become one of the most dynamic medical markets in the future, experts have predicted. To understand this connection, one only needs to apply a bit of maths. According to market analysts, the ASEAN countries are expected to be among the most promising emerg- ing medical device markets owing to increasing economic growth, big pop- ulations and large emerging middle classes. Of the ten member states, re- garding population numbers, Indone- sia alone represents one-third of the whole market and, hence, has the greatest development potential. In light of this, one also has to keep in mind that the Indonesian medical device market currently is still fairly underdeveloped. Consid- ered internationally, its volume is about that of the Hungarian mar- ket—a country with a population size IDEC 2017 3 © Guitar photographer/shutterstock.com© anatoliy_gleb/shutterstock.com

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